Transform is an nice educational puzzle game. Its learning focus is on basic geometric transformations. The topics of reflection, rotation, translation, and dilation, more commonly known as flip, turn, slide, and scale, are all conveyed through an interactive puzzle environment.

In Transform, players are presented with puzzles that contain a number of shapes and targets. The shapes can be manipulated by using the transformational powers of translation, rotation, dilation, and reflection. The objective for a given level is to match each shape to its respective target. Once this has been accomplished, the player is presented with a new puzzle. Transform features three game modes to suit the interests of its audience. It also contains an interactive tutorial that introduces first-time users to both the game and its educational content.

Transform is composed of three different modes of play, all of which serve a specific purpose.

– Challenge mode contains 50 puzzles of increasing complexity. Its level structure guides learning by first requiring players to use each transformation in isolation. Gradually, more transformations are added to the user’s arsenal as the difficulty of puzzles increases. Thus, students are sufficiently exposed to each topic before they are challenged to solve complex problems. This segment of the game might be more accurately described as ‘learning mode,’ though that name was avoided to prevent dissuading potential users.

– Free mode generates entirely random puzzles and allows players to explore all of the transformations without any time constraints. This is intended to be a practice grounds for users who have completed challenge mode, but are not ready to take on the time and transformation constraints of other game modes.

– Time mode is the purest game-like method of play in Transform. Similar to challenge mode, the transformations that players can use are restricted from level to level. However, like free mode, both the transformations allowed and the puzzles are randomized. A unique feature in time mode is that the player is racing against a clock that counts down from to 0 seconds. Every time a puzzle is successfully completed, the user will gain 15 seconds. However, if the clock reaches 0, the game will end. Subsequently, a player’s final score is calculated, along with a school-like grade mark (i.e. C-, A+). The ‘Top Transformers’ leaderboard allows users to submit and display their best scores [via vuBlog] . Happy Puzzling!